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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Declaration of Objectives of Teachers for Intervention in Education

Punjabi University, Patiala

Declaration
of Objectives

During the
last two decades changes have been underway in education which aim at making
the economic ‘reforms’ a success. This is part of a larger agenda of treating
private and corporate profits as the highest good under the so-called new
economic order. Education is being subjected to deep-rooted and widespread
perversions in a systematic and studied manner. Vast numbers of students are
being deprived of any opportunity for meaningful education. The overall
standards of education are dropping. Teachers are being robbed of the space in
which they can respond ably to the call of their vocation; they are being reduced
to insignificant appendages of a dehumanizing system that treats profits as more
important than human beings. The system of recruitment of the faculty has been
slowly distorted so much that competence, scholarship and legitimate claims to
employment no longer have any value. It surprises no one, therefore, when
neither the governments nor the university authorities bother to pay any
attention to the teachers’ genuine needs and demands, and even to their
self-respect and social position.

It is
obvious to everyone that the teachers’ organizations/unions active in the
institutions of higher education have not responded adequately and effectively
to the changing pressures of the system emerging under the new economic order.
They have largely failed to suitably transform their organizational structures,
styles of functioning and strategies of struggle. New teachers do not get
deserved opportunities to participate equally in these organizations. In this
situation the teachers wedded to academics and a life of the intellect are discouraged
from performing a pro-actively constructive and positive role in the
university. The academic atmosphere of the university thus enters a cycle of degeneration.
These worrying developments have to be viewed against the context of a broader
scenario in which the financial autonomy of the university has been
systematically and steadily eroded, even as political interference in its
internal affairs has grown proportionately.

The
universities are meant to provide fearless and free-minded intellectual and
moral leadership to society. In the prevailing circumstances, they are being
turned into factories for profits and instruments for the unholy aspirations of
some unscrupulous and myopic politicians.

Punjabi University has not remained uninfected
by these vile winds. At a certain historically significant point of time, the
state government started imposing substantial cuts on its grants and gradually
retreated from its social obligation to fund higher education. At the same time,
however, political interference into the university’s internal affairs has grown
monstrously. Right from the appointments of the faculty to the balance of power
in PUTA - everything has come to be influenced by politicians. Worse, instead
of following their vocation of providing intellectual leadership to society, a sizeable
section of the university teachers has sold itself to certain irresponsible,
insensitive and corrupt politicians.

And so a time came when we the
teachers lost even our last citadel, PUTA. In the absence of PUTA, a small
number of ‘teachers’ personally prospered (and did so unchecked, unquestioned)
because they had the blessings of some politicians. The ordinary,
independent-minded teachers, who were in a majority, were left to fend
individually for themselves and were driven into the wilderness, a sort of
exile in their own university. Instead of a proper schedule for interviews for
promotions on the basis of the date of eligibility and the date of application,
an abnormal system of patronage and sifarish evolved in which those who had the
right connections always managed to get their interviews fixed on a priority.
The basic facilities given to teachers came to be marked by pure bias and
discrimination. The teacher as such - the ordinary teacher who enjoyed no one’s
blessings, had no office, and enjoyed no proximity to ‘those in power’ - was thus
increasingly isolated. She/he was left to run alone from pillar to post to get
even their routine files moved.

Observing the situation and enduring its
consequences, we were able to see clearly that during the period the university
was without PUTA, most of the teachers’ groups had turned their backs on the
collective interests of teachers. The teacher as teacher had ceased to exist in
their eyes covered under ‘power glasses’. We noticed that they had
unfortunately joined a rat race for trivial personal benefits and un-academic official
positions. Who can deny that several groups had obtained positions of power in
the university administration only to promote the personal interests of their
own members and to get members of their own families appointed on various
posts? Such teachers’ groups have thrown into the dustbin the very last scraps
of the agenda that once guided the teachers’ groups – the agenda of working solely
for academics, for the academic fraternity and for the society at large, while
keeping from power a distance of dissent and unsparing constructive criticism. The
bitter truth today is that what determines a group’s pro-establishment or
anti-establishment position is merely their co-optation or not into convenient
arrangements with power. In our view, the distinction between pro-establishment
and anti-establishment does not make much sense in our university today. This
is proved beyond doubt by the fact that for a long time now these groups have not
stood up for the genuine issues raised by those teachers who are
independent-minded, who move outside their narrow and exclusive circles and who
refuse to submit to their domination.

In this vacuum, it was felt that such
independent teachers needed to organize themselves in order to raise their collective
voice in defense of their legitimate demands and rights. Consequently, some of
us came together to form an association which we thoughtfully decided to call Teachers for Intervention in Education
(TIE). We decided that this organization would be authentically democratic,
secular, and forward-looking. It would work for a system of socially relevant
and responsible education. And it would strive to redeem and enhance the honour
and dignity of teachers committed to providing intellectual-political
leadership to society. We therefore define our association as pro-university,
pro-teacher, pro-education and pro-student. We pledge that we will challenge
and resist any force that undermines academic standards and that operates
against the teachers’ interests, their rights and their dignity. This
organization has been constituted for a purpose far larger than participation
in PUTA polls. In the past we have accordingly worked consistently for the
university teachers’ rights, for the restoration of the highest academic
standards and for spreading awareness about challenges confronting higher
education under the so-called new economic regime. We declare that irrespective
of the results of PUTA polls, we will continue to work for the realization of
our objectives and that we will not betray the principles on which our
association is founded.

Against the larger backdrop of the
role of leadership that the university teachers are today called upon to take
up at this historical juncture, we all need to be alert to the economics and
politics of divisiveness, differentiation and segmentation being officially propagated and practiced in the sphere
of education against the traditions of solidarity of all teachers. We have
accordingly considered the problems and issues confronting us in this
university. To find long-lasting solutions to these we seek your cooperation
and support.

1.Restoring
the autonomy of the university: It is essential that the
university should regain its autonomy if a socially responsible education
system is to be raised as against the demands imposed by the blind and
insensible market, if educators with outstanding academic credentials are to be
attracted and if the sincerely devoted teachers are to be provided necessary facilities
and good working conditions required for serious academic pursuits. Political
and bureaucratic interference must be eliminated for autonomy to be realized.
Academic accomplishment must be the sole criterion for selection of the
faculty.

2.A fair and
just distribution of required facilities among the faculty and the departments:
The teachers and the departments should be given the required facilities
on the basis of their needs, work and seniority. The currently prevailing
feudal kind of arrangement should be put to an end under which a handful of
teachers take away the lion’s share of the university’s scarce resources,
facilities and spaces, while other teachers remain deprived of even the basic
needs and amenities. Campus accommodation in particular needs to be allotted on
a rational, not arbitrary, basis.

3.Ensuring
the participation of all categories of teachers in the university
administration: Administrative authority should not be concentrated
and circulated among a small number of teachers only. Instead, teachers of all
categories should be appointed on administrative positions as appropriate to
their designation and rank so that the widest representation can be ensured in
the decision-making. Women teachers have not received their deserved representation
in the university administration for a long time. Gender discrimination against
women must be entirely eliminated in the matter of appointments to positions of
authority and responsibility in the university.

4.Time-bound
disposal of the faculty’s representations, applications, letters and
grievances: A transparent, accountable and time-bound system, with
inbuilt monitoring, needs to put in place for this purpose so that the teachers
are not compelled to waste their valuable time in chasing files from office to
office.

5.Making an
unbiased schedule for interviews under CAS: The interviews under Career Advancement Scheme should be systematized
leaving no scope for interference and exercise of prejudice. The schedule
should be based on the date of eligibility and the date of application
submitted for promotion under CAS. The current arrangement encourages patronage
and recommendation and compromises the self-respect of teachers who do not wish
to approach anyone to get what the university owes to them as a matter of their
right.

6.University-level
funding for the faculty’s research work: The University should establish a
research corpus for funding the research projects of the faculty. At the same
time, liberal research fellowships should be provided to deserving research
scholars in order to promote the production of socially relevant knowledge.

7.Ensuring
merit-based and transparent recruitment of faculty: If the
university is to fulfill its mandate, utmost care must be taken to ensure that
faculty recruitment does not suffer from any distortions. Academic achievements
merit and research should be duly respected. For this purpose, a fair,
fool-proof and transparent method of recruitment should be adopted and strictly
followed.

8.Immediate
disposal of all pending financial issues of the faculty: Alarger number of financial issues have
remained unresolved because of the apathy of the university administration.
These include promotions, the financial benefits accruing from promotions,
increments, the dues on account of delayed counting of past service, etc. A
very large number of teachers face unmerited harassment and frustration as a
result of the attitude of the authorities towards these issues. It is essential
to dispose of all such matters regularly, justly and within fixed time frames.

9.Functional
autonomy and basic facilities to UCOE, YCOE, neighbourhood campuses and
constituent colleges: The faculty working in these organic parts of Punjabi University has to face avoidable
harassment and difficulties in the course of routine work. The teachers often
have to interrupt their teaching and research in order to visit the main
university campus for things which should be dealt with automatically. What is
needed is an administrative arrangement which would ensure functional autonomy
to these colleges and give to them the authority to take routine decisions at
their own level. Moreover these colleges need to be equipped with proper
facilities of faculty residence, library, canteen, etc.

10.Ensuring
effective equality among all teachers employed by the university: In recent
yearsthe university has expanded
enormously, establishing neighbourhood campuses, constituent colleges, etc. The
teachers working in these places should be accorded an equal status. They should
also be made members of PUTA as this will only strengthen the collective power
of all teachers. Their democratic rights should be respected, particularly when
it is clear that they cannot become members of GCTA or PCCTU. If these colleges
are all given the status of departments, the teachers working in them can
automatically get their political rights.

11.Making the
functioning departments democratic and transparent in practice: This is
necessary for ensuring equal participation of all teachers iin decision-making
at the level of the department. This will also enable equal voice of and
respect for all teachers. The ACDs must be given back their statutory role,
autonomy and authority as laid down in the university calendar.

12.The
eligibility condition of three years of Associate Professorship be removed for
appointment as Head of the Department: Under the previous rules, a reader
with three years of service in that capacity was eligible to be appointed as
head of the department. Under the current rules, one becomes an Associate
Professor after completing three years as Reader or Lecturer (Selection Grade).
Hence it is unfair to impose the eligibility condition of three years of
Associate Professorship for becoming head of the department. This is an
unreasonable, unfair and arbitrary rule, and so it must be rescinded.

13.Striking a
balance between the university’s environment and the compulsion for new
constructions: The enviably planned Punjabi University
campus is admired for its excellent balance between concrete structures and
green spaces. However, this balance has recently come under a mindless assault
as huge buildings are being raised without giving sufficient though to give
overall viability and impact. A regular environmental audit should be initiated
and nothing should be done that damages the university’smaster plan and greenery in a serious way.

14.Regulation
of traffic in the university Campus: Excessive volume and movement of
traffic in the campus has ruined the peace that an institution of learning
requires. In place of it there is unbearable sound pollution and the rush of a
bazaar. The physical safety and peace of mind of teachers and students stand
seriously endangered. Women teachers and students have been rendered
particularly vulnerable because of unchecked entry of outsiders in their
vehicles.

15.Implementation
of all recommendations of the 6th pay commission: The
recommendation must be implemented without dilution and in toto, including the
payment of arrears, the allowances, increase in the retirement age to 65,
reemployment until 70 years, etc.

We appeal to all teachers and the teachers’ groups dedicated
to these objectives that they should come forward to contribute wholeheartedly
to the consolidation of a forward-looking collective alternative committed to
academics and the interests of the academic fraternity. We believe that every
teacher aspires for a cordial and work-friendly atmosphere, for a fair and just
administrative dispensation, for freedom of creative scholarship and expression,
and for self-respect and dignity. But the achievement of these things demands continuous
endeavours and everybody’s participation. With your help and cooperation, it is
possible to do this.

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kriti+culture

kriti, with roots in Sanskrit,is art, artifice, creation, work, labor . . . the inscription of the arts in criticism,of labor in the arts, of art in labor. In Punjabi, it incarnates itself also as kirti culture, the worker's culture.

kriticulture - with its dissident 'k' - is the interspace of criti(cal)culture that cloudlike travels across, overwhelms borders . . . the insemination of creative criticism, and of critical creativity, in culture.